Bob

This piece has been fashioned to hang on the wall like a picture and is constructed of material that will with stand the out door elements.  I have had it hanging outside my home since it was completed quite a few years ago.  The face was sculpted in wax and then a plaster cast made over this wax piece. When the wax was removed from the plaster mold resin and iron filings were mixed and lined the inside surface.  Layers of steel wool saturated with resin were placed over the cast iron inner-surface. The plaster mold was removed when the cast metal liner had cured.  The exposed surface was scrubbed and acid washed to remove resin residue.  Exposed iron filings then were allowed to rust naturally as a final finish.

You may be curious about the title "Bob".  Do you think this face bears any resemblance to a personality in show business?

*More detail can be found on my art at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

Saguaro Gate

I made this gate and placed it in a breezeway between the main house and my shop at our First Avenue address.  It is primarily welded square tubing to create a square within a square.  Short pieces of saguaro rib are placed between three sides of the squares.  The top arch has colored glass pieces similar to one other rainbow gate that was the subject of an earlier post.  The center shape is a large section of saguaro in a band iron frame.

The gate was fitted with self closing hinges and a lockable latch to qualify as a barrier to the pool.  It had fine expanded metal mesh fastened over the surface to keep out varmints.  This had little effect on the occasional bob cat that wandered by and hopped over with ease to get a drunk from the pool.  In fact we had a young female bob cat that stayed with us for quite some time.  She spent time in an upstairs deck or sleeping in our love seat.  She did her hunting at night and since our bedroom was under her second story roost we could hear when she came down stairs.  Her picture is shown below to authenticate this story and there is much more to the tail in the second volume of my autobiography, "Which Road Should I Follow?"

*More detail can be found on my art at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

Tiled Tourtus

This is an art feature that my wife, JoAnn and I incorporated into the outside stucco on one of our homes walls.  It is a pop-out that is fashioned from the metal lath and secured to the metal lath on the wall before the stucco coats and paint are applied.  JoAnn created the design and it was transferred top sheets of foam insulation.  In some spots two or three layers were used to build up the pop-out and give it three dimensional qualities.  When all is wired and pinned in place it is ready to be covered by the stucco crew.  Our work has to be timed to fit their schedule so that construction  continues smoothly.

After the stucco has been painted JoAnn added tile to the shell.  The pop-out is eight feet tall and six feet wide.  The bottom of the wall can be seen in this photo.

*More detail can be found on our art at website <www.apatchablue.com>

Loops

This piece was created by my wife, JoAnn as she worked toward advanced degrees in Art.  She modeled the shape in wax, invested it in mold material and melted the wax out.  She named the piece "loops".  Crushed glass and tinted resin was then placed in the hollow mold.  The hard work started when the resin/glass in the full mold had completely set.

After the mold was ground away, hours were spent smoothing the surface.  The embedded glass made this a tedious process but the resultant surface was worth it.  It has a depth and sheen with several spots of clear resin that provides transparency into the piece.  The color graduatiom from light at the top to dark in the bottom is complemented by the black stone base.

    *More detail can be found on JoAnn's art at our website <www.apatchablue.com>                                                                     

Rainbow Gate

This gate was built to provide access through the pool barrier wall at our Williams Drive home in Tucson.  When we decided to sell that home our daughter, Kristi asked if she could have it to place in her patio fence.  She offered to buy a conventional wrought iron gate and pay to have it hung as a replacement before the house sold.  We agreed as this would keep this personal creation in the family.  As seen in this photo, it is in place in the wrought iron fence around her patio.

The gates name comes from the one inch thick chunks of colored glass mounted in the arch over the top.  The glass is held in place by casting resin.  While the resin was still in a preset stage I sprinkled sand over it to give the appearance of sand grout.  It was designed with the wire mesh to keep critters out of the pool.  It is equipped with self closing hinges and a latch that can be locked, all required by pool safety regulations.  We enjoy my creation each time we visit with Kristi.

*More detail can be found on my art at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

A Light In the Desert

I have driven past this art piece many times on my way to down town Tucson.  I often wondered if it had been the start of a bigger plan that never materialized or was it placed alone in this spot of desert to accent its design.  It's rusty metal, the golden Terra-cotta soil and the various greens of desert foliage, all set against the blue of an Arizona sky, makes a pleasant, natural collage of color.

I was tempted to recreate a piece similar to this for decoration around my yard.  It could be equipped with solar energy illumination.  I have welded with both  electric arc and gas on many other art project and landscape structures for our various homes as might have been noticed in previous posts and will surely be seen in future posts.  I doubt if I will ever follow up on this thought however, as my health and down-sizing of my shop limits my ability to carry out such a project.  I will be content to drive by and admire the light in the desert from time to time.  Perhaps this will also serve as a source of motivation for some other artist.

*More detail can be found on my art at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

Decorative Resin

  From time to time JoAnn and I have been asked by a gallery we regularly show our work in, to participate in a holiday decoration event.  The artists produce unique decorative pieces that are  then put on display and may be purchased by the general public with funds generated going to the programs sponsored by the gallery.  We have always enjoyed this involvement as a way to keep the gallery going and also as a way to get our work in front of the public.  A few samples are shown below.

 cast resin over cholla wood-EKH

wood segments in cast resin-EKH

cast resin-EKH

 cast resin disks in wood frames-EKH

painted seed pods-JLH

 backed clay-JLH

*More detail can be found on my art at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

Sleeping Beauty

I thought I would try my hand at carving the human body shape.  I worked quite a while getting the figure sketched so I could transfer the various views to the wood.  I decided to use a clear piece of Alder I had in my stash.  The figure was about 14 inches long.  After shaping and smoothing down the figure I rubbed in a dark stain and finished with oil ands wax.  This was the first and last attempt I made to carve the human figure.  I still have the piece in my collection.
*More detail can be found on my art at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

TV Console Doors

I was contacted by a lady from a near by retirement community who asked me if I could design and build doors to fit her TV console.  I agreed to drive out to her home in Saddle Brooke and look at her piece of furniture to determine if I could do what would please her.  If it looked like a feasible project I would have to take measurements so that the doors could be fabricated in my shop and then taken out and installed.

It was a nice piece of furniture and I felt I could handle the job.  As you can see she was using the cabinet to display art pieces and wanted to conceal the TV when not in use.  We talked about the solution I had in mind and after getting the measurements I needed I headed for home.  It took several weeks to gather the supplies and lay out the design.  I used Oak for the frames and secured saguaro ribs run vertical inside the frames.  This allowed air to pass through the door when they were closed   The doors were hinged to a slide so that when opened they could be slid back into the cabinet on either side of the TV.  A face plate frame circled the opening to conceal the hinges and slide mechanism.  I put a white finish on all parts to match the console.  The finished product is shown below.

*More detail can be found on my art at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

Old Yella

It's great to have artist friends that understand what I'm trying to do with my wood art.  A part of the wood I use has been given to me by these friends.  In an earlier post I mentioned friends in Oracle that supplied me with more manzanita wood than I will be able to use in my lifetime.

The wood for this piece was donated by Tucson friends.  Bob had a grapefruit tree that died and he gave me access to as much of it as I wanted,  Grapefruit is a very light colored wood with a close grain texture which makes it a pleasure to work with.  The oil finish turns the wood to a light yellow color, hence the name for this piece,  The other wood used is mesquite which gives a nice contrast.

The piece is apromixatly 14 inches tall and uses the typical construction strategy's applied to my other vessels. The fiberglass shell was formed over a foam core, later removed.  The mosaic of mesquite pieces were cut and fit individually.  The shape of the top piece of grapefruit wood gives a suggestion of some type of life form or comedic character.

*More detail can be found on my art at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

Meditation Urn

This piece is small, standing only 5.5 inches tall.  It has a bronze base and the remainder is cast resin. White tinting was added in random pattern to them top.  The lost wax method of casting was used to create the bronze base and then again to develop the mold for the resin pour.  The free form top developed as the resin was worked smooth.  The piece is waxed to slow oxidation of the bronze base and give the resin a heigher sheen.  The Meditation Urn remains in our collection and my wife would need to be lobbied heavily before she would be willing to part with it.

    *More detail can be found on my art at my website <www.apatchablue.com>             

Hippie Woodwork

One day many years ago JoAnn and I were exploring the country-side when we came upon a deserted hippie camp that was a mess.  Papers were blowing around with cans and bottles every where.  My eye caught a glimpse of a tree stump that someone had been carving on.  Anything wooden was of interest to me so we loaded it into the car and it has been traveling with us ever since as we move from home to home.  It makes a  rather primitive decoration in our bed of vines and crape myrtle bushes.

In contrast, on the other end of this bed of green vines is a cutter bee habitat.  The many holes drilled in this heavy timber provide places where bee larva are deposited with a start-up supply of food for the baby bees when they mature and venture forth into the world.  I gave the timbers and a number of other pieces of wood to a friend who does interesting, attractive pieces for outside display.  He gave us this finished piece.

The cutter bees aren't a stinging bee and are hardly noticed except for the holes they cut in leaves of some plants.  They pack the holes around the larva full with this cut material.  Our friend workes with this type structure, placing them in the comercial landscape areas he creates.  He maintains the bees are benifical to growth  in the landscaping.

*More detail can be found on my art at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

Botiquin

In an earlier post I spoke of the pickup load of Manzanita prunings our friends, Gene and Jackie gave me to work into the vessels I build.  It is a beautiful, colorful hard wood and I have sence used it in a number of my vessel creations.   Botiquin was made and given as a gift to my oldest daughter, Amy.  

The Manzanita plant has long been regarded as a source of medical assistance, hence the title "Botiquin", which is Spanish for "medicine chest".  Leaves and berries from the 36 species native to the U.S. have been used in tea as a diuretic while other potions and poultices are reported to cure affliction of;  Altumenoria,  Bronchitis, and Venereal Decease.  Indians used the berries as food and steeped them to form a beverage.  Other benefits from this low spreading plant which forms dense thickets is the cover it affords wildlife and food for the browsing deer or other small animals and birds that feed upon the fruit.  The roots of the Manzanita also work well to retard erosion of the land.

                                 Technical Information

Size:     8" dia,  12" L.

Weight:           4 lb.

Material:          Limb segments were adhered to a fiberglass shell.  Larger limb segments ring the                                 opening of the vessel.  Resin with a dark filler was used to grout between the wood                               segments.

Source:            Pruning from a friend in Oracle, Arizona.

Finish:            Finished surface of wood was treated with Danish Oil and a paste wax finish was                                  applied to all surfaces.

*More detail can be found on my art at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

Sonora Desert Shadows

I wanted to develop a new line of art pieces that continued to feature the local desert woods but in a format that I called wood tapestry.  The dictionary definition of tapestry is: "a fabric consisting of a warp upon which colored threads are woven by hand to produce a design, often pictorial, used for wall hangings, furniture coverings, etc."  This sounded like what I wanted to do only with wood rather than fabric.  My first piece called Sonora Desert Shadows is shown below.

The framed size is 3 ft. wide and 4 ft. tall.  All pieces are mounted on a 3/8 inch plywood and framed with narrow strips of gum wood.  Additional sculptured pieces of gum wood are used throughout the piece.  A backdrop of saguaro ribs, stained purple are placed across the top and large sections of saguaro limbs, also stained purple fill the lower portion.  Cholla sections stained red fill the central area and filter down through the large Saguaro segments.  This is a large, heavy and bold piece designed to be hung on the wall.  It sold just last month.

A second piece in this series, Full Moon Rising, was featured in an earlier post.  I have four or five more in the sketching stage that I would love to start.  It's the familiar situation,  "so many ideas--so little time".

*More detail can be found on my art at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

Vera

Our good friends, Gene and Jackie, who live in the mountain town of Oracle, Arizona, have visited often and have been interested in the progress of our art.  On occasions when we are visiting them, Gene has offered wood trimmings from his property to use in construction of my vessels.  On one visit I brought home a pickup load of Manzanita limbs.  These shrubs with beautiful smooth red limbs grew all over his property and he had been pruning them so the beauty of their colorful limbs was more visible.  I made a number of vessels from this load of Manzanita, one named for the scientific family, Arctostaphylos, which I gave to our Oracle friends.

On another occasion Gene was taking down a Pistachio tree damaged by the cold winter.  I didn't hesitate when he offered me as much wood as I wanted.  I enjoy the pistachio nuts and try to keep some on hand to snack on.

I was surprised Gene had lost his tree due to cold winter weather.  It is a deciduous tree, requiring approximately 1,000 hours of temperature at or below 45 degrees F, in order to grow normally after its winter dormancy.  Pistachio nut trees are, generally suited for areas where summers are long, hot and dry, and winters are moderately cold.  A native desert tree, it does not tolerate high humidity in the growing season.

These showy trees when in full bloom in late March are beautiful specimen in addition to the nuts they produce.  The male pollinates the female via the April winds, and the shell of the nut is fully developed by mid-May.  Before  June ends, the seed inside the shell has begun its rapid expansion and by the first of August, the seed has filled the shell.  The nuts, splitting at the seams, are usually ready to be harvested the first week of September.

The scientific name for the pistachio is Pistacia vera L.  It is a member of the family Anacardiaceae which contains such widely known plants as the cashew, mango and poison oak.  The title for the above art vessel, "Vera" was taken from the second part of the scientific name of the Pistachio tree. The wood used in this piece was that which Gene gave me.  The tinted green resin tops to the two necks of the vessel symbolize the green of the nutmeat from the pistachio.  The dimensions of this piece are:  27 in.h. x 15 in.w. x 6 in. d.


*More detail can be found on my art at my website <www.apatchablue.com>.

Stone Aged Art

                                                                                   




















This is a pool-side photo of our William Drive lap pool.  The distance between the house and the wall was so reduced that a conventional pool wouldn't fit.  To create a legal barrier around the pool I raised the height of the stone wall and metal panels between the stone pedestals.

There is quite a story about the original stone wall and metal panels that had been place there by the owner of the property.  I'll not get into that now but refer it to a later post.  Come sit with me and enjoy the stone and metal work.  I have fun visualizing these surfaces to see what faces or figures emerge.  A tool of the artist is to be able to visualize images in this way and then expand on them.

What do you see in that first photo?  The face I see is quite obvious but I have looked at it for years.  If you don't see it yet, here is a clue.  Look in the area where the rock wall joins the cement block wall.  Don't be confused by the metal sculpture leaning against the wall further to the left.  Here is another challenge on one of the stone pedestals.  Do you see anything resembling a caricature face?

OK, here's a clue.  This face has a large forehead but the rest of the face is being squeezed between two large rocks.  I believe the ability to see these shapes and figures will help you see interesting things in daily life.  I'm constantly analyzing  the landscape, the folds of material or even patterns in floor tile.  Well, have fun looking.  Oh, before I sign off here are several more clues to the above eye tests.


         



















           



















*More detail can be found on my art at my website <www.apatchablue.com>.

Let's Go Fishing

This vessel garnered quite a bit of attention.  It is titled "Something Fishy".  I constructed it over a shaped foam core, starting with a fiberglass shell constructed over the core.  Saguaro rib sections were attached to the shell and resin grout filled all the voids.  The foam core was removed through the bottom and a bottom surface attached and worked down with the smoothing of the entire piece. The shape and color of the Saguaro segments represent the fish scales.  The eyes were cast with yellow resin and a precast black resin pupils were incorporated.  Heavy, stiff leather was used for fins. The vessel stands about 30 inches high.  My traditional rubbed oil and wax finish completed the piece.  It was purchased by good friends who thought it might work as an umbrella stand.

*More detail can be found on my art at my website <www.apatchablue.com>.